Had put aside this to read, I have to go read the previous parts! But this is so fascinating! The girdle is such an archaic form of dress found in so many cultures and all seem to have a shamanic purpose in protecting the fertility and womb portal of the woman.
The bird goddess as we see evolved in the iconography of the sirens makes me think of Gimbutas work, finding the bird goddess as one of the oldest icons in early Neolithic times, it always makes me wonder about that transition of symbolism over thousands of years, what makes them take certain forms and qualities and how it varies due to geography. The mermaid and the gorgons - common theme is scales - snake or fish tale? I see snakes and fish very linked to fertility, not only in how they have yonic traits, but both animals can either lay eggs or live births, but namely the egg being one of the oldest symbols for life/ birth and fertility. The bird I always see as more dualistic as can represent death and birth, depending on type of bird. If predatory bird like vulture or eagle, then that make link back to paleolithic practices of excarnation, while birds like doves, cranes, egrets may be more tied to birth, but then again dove is often found in burial artwork, like the soul leaving the body, but in birth, the dove / soul enters the body.
The one tail mermaid then splitting into two tail mermaid, that makes me wonder did they first take on a more serpentine quality like Python guarding the oracular womb, Delphi, to then splitting two more like a fish tail? Interestingly we find many fish and snakes are parthenogenetic.
I need to go read your earlier piece on the birds as I get rooster is associated with the sun, but again the rooster and peacock are both the male of the bird. So I feel they’re probably denoting the masculine aspect of fertility and protection
Hi there, I'm so glad you're finding it interesting!
It's probably best to read these in order as intended as I start with the social context and then drill into the symbols.
I have this favourite quote by anthropologist Victor Turner:
“[As] stories that purport to impose meaning on social life in contingent critical (i.e. historical) situations, myths are not dogmatic but dramatic stories of tradition. They become significant precisely in moments when common traditional meanings of life and history have become indeterminate, as in wars or revolutions, and their social utility is to sustain the structural tradition of society by some dramatic reactivation of its original motivations. Where historical life itself fails to make cultural sense in terms that formerly held good, narrative and cultural drama may have the task of poesis, that is, of remaking cultural sense.”
Even when we find common symbols or themes across cultures, they can mean very different things depending on historical period, location, culture, and even in different regions or periods in the same culture.
It’s also important to remember that the weight and significance we give to things today may not be the same as that given in other periods; masculinity and femininity may have been perceived very differently indeed; so too, the very idea of the sacred.
There’s a great story about how in the years after the death of Alexander the Great, the citizens of Athens were fed up at the uncertainty and turmoil. One of his generals entered the city promising to restore order: the people tore down the statues of the gods and erected a statue of the general in their place. The sacred is sacred until it isn’t… it ceases to be so when it ceases to make sense…. I tend to keep this in mind when noting these shifts in meaning, then I go looking for the historical reasons why….
Yes I’ve marked off the previous parts to read in order now haha
I love that quote! And agree a lot with how ancient symbols have been especially reinterpreted with a modern lens, I commonly see a lot of Jungian overlays on symbols. But for me, I’ve personally been interested in where it all began and that’s why I look to a lot of the paleolithic and Neolithic art to give me clues to the early conciseness of humans, in how they perceived the world around them and infused so much of nature into their metaphoric language that would eventually develop from these totems or motifs. I feel the further back we go those connections become more apparent between cultures and geography and as you mentioned the symbolism shifted due to sociopolitical events which I perceive as “rebranding”
Had put aside this to read, I have to go read the previous parts! But this is so fascinating! The girdle is such an archaic form of dress found in so many cultures and all seem to have a shamanic purpose in protecting the fertility and womb portal of the woman.
The bird goddess as we see evolved in the iconography of the sirens makes me think of Gimbutas work, finding the bird goddess as one of the oldest icons in early Neolithic times, it always makes me wonder about that transition of symbolism over thousands of years, what makes them take certain forms and qualities and how it varies due to geography. The mermaid and the gorgons - common theme is scales - snake or fish tale? I see snakes and fish very linked to fertility, not only in how they have yonic traits, but both animals can either lay eggs or live births, but namely the egg being one of the oldest symbols for life/ birth and fertility. The bird I always see as more dualistic as can represent death and birth, depending on type of bird. If predatory bird like vulture or eagle, then that make link back to paleolithic practices of excarnation, while birds like doves, cranes, egrets may be more tied to birth, but then again dove is often found in burial artwork, like the soul leaving the body, but in birth, the dove / soul enters the body.
The one tail mermaid then splitting into two tail mermaid, that makes me wonder did they first take on a more serpentine quality like Python guarding the oracular womb, Delphi, to then splitting two more like a fish tail? Interestingly we find many fish and snakes are parthenogenetic.
I need to go read your earlier piece on the birds as I get rooster is associated with the sun, but again the rooster and peacock are both the male of the bird. So I feel they’re probably denoting the masculine aspect of fertility and protection
Hi there, I'm so glad you're finding it interesting!
It's probably best to read these in order as intended as I start with the social context and then drill into the symbols.
I have this favourite quote by anthropologist Victor Turner:
“[As] stories that purport to impose meaning on social life in contingent critical (i.e. historical) situations, myths are not dogmatic but dramatic stories of tradition. They become significant precisely in moments when common traditional meanings of life and history have become indeterminate, as in wars or revolutions, and their social utility is to sustain the structural tradition of society by some dramatic reactivation of its original motivations. Where historical life itself fails to make cultural sense in terms that formerly held good, narrative and cultural drama may have the task of poesis, that is, of remaking cultural sense.”
Even when we find common symbols or themes across cultures, they can mean very different things depending on historical period, location, culture, and even in different regions or periods in the same culture.
It’s also important to remember that the weight and significance we give to things today may not be the same as that given in other periods; masculinity and femininity may have been perceived very differently indeed; so too, the very idea of the sacred.
There’s a great story about how in the years after the death of Alexander the Great, the citizens of Athens were fed up at the uncertainty and turmoil. One of his generals entered the city promising to restore order: the people tore down the statues of the gods and erected a statue of the general in their place. The sacred is sacred until it isn’t… it ceases to be so when it ceases to make sense…. I tend to keep this in mind when noting these shifts in meaning, then I go looking for the historical reasons why….
Yes I’ve marked off the previous parts to read in order now haha
I love that quote! And agree a lot with how ancient symbols have been especially reinterpreted with a modern lens, I commonly see a lot of Jungian overlays on symbols. But for me, I’ve personally been interested in where it all began and that’s why I look to a lot of the paleolithic and Neolithic art to give me clues to the early conciseness of humans, in how they perceived the world around them and infused so much of nature into their metaphoric language that would eventually develop from these totems or motifs. I feel the further back we go those connections become more apparent between cultures and geography and as you mentioned the symbolism shifted due to sociopolitical events which I perceive as “rebranding”
This has been most helpful as I have been looking into the difference between a siren, mermaid and 2 tailed mermaids.
I’m so glad it’s useful!
Thank you!!!